Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-08-17
A RAILROAD HORROR.
AN EXCURSION TRAIN WRECKED.
oNEHUKDREDANDEIG EIGHTEEN DEAD


RIA AND WESTERN RAILROAD, NEAR FOR
EST, ILL.-THE COACHES TELEscoPED
AND THEIR OCCUPANTS CRUsHED-TER-
RIDLE SCENES AT THE WRECK.
An excursion train of fifteen coaches,
carrying 900 passengers and drawn by two
locomotives, was wrecked at midnight by
the collapse of burning bridge at Chats
worth, six miles east of Forest, Ill, on the
Toledo, Peoria and Western Railroad. One
locomotive six passenger coaches and three
baggage cars went through. The six sleep
ing Goa ches remained on the trucks. The
passenger coaches were telescoped. One
hundred and eighteen dead were taken out,
and four hundred persons were injured.
The train was bound for Niagara Falls, and
the majority of the excursoinists came from
Peoria, H., although there were some from
Canton, Ell Paso, Washington and other
stations on the road. The dead and wound
ed were plundered in such a systematic
manner as to suggest that the bridge had
been deliberately set On fire with that OBJ
ject in view.
scRIPTIoN OF THE sCENE-RoBBINa THE
DEAD AND DYING.
CHICAGO, Aug. 1.-THE Chicago Times
special from Forest, ILL.,, says All the rail
way horrors in the history of this country
were surpassed three miles east OF Chats
worth last night, when an excursion train
on the Toledo, Peoria and Western Road
dropped through burning bridge and over
one hundred people were killed and over
four times that number were more or less
badly injured. The train was composed OF
six sleeping cars, six coaches and and chair
cars and three baggage cars. 1t was carrying
$50 passengers, all excursionists and bound
for Niagara Falls. The train had been
made up all along the line of the Toledo,
Peoria and Western Road, and the exour-
sionists hailed from various points in Cen
trail Illinois, the bulk Of them, however,
coming from Peoria. Some Of the passen-
GERS came from El Paso, Washington and
in fact all stations along the line; some from
as far west as Burlington and keokuk,
Iowa. A special and cheap rate had been
made for the excursion, and all sorts OF peo-
pie took advantage of it. When the train
drew out of Peoria, at 8 O'Clock last even
ing it was loaded TO its utmost capacity.
Every berth in the six sleepefs was taken,
and the day cars carried sixty people each.
The train was SO heavy that two engines
were hitched to it, and when it passed this
place it was an hour and a-half behind time.
Chatsworth, the next station east Of here,
is six miles off, and the run was made III
seven minutes
THE BURNING BRIDGE.
Three miles east of Chatsworth ID lit
tie s3ough. and whore the railroad crosses
dry run about ten feet deep and 10 feet
wide, Over this was stretched an ordina-
nv wooden bridge, and IS the excursion
train came laundering down on 1t, what
was the horror of the engineer oa the front
engine when he faw that the bridge was
afire ? Right up before his eyes leaped the
| bright flames, and the next instant he was
among them. There was no chahce to stop.
Ha@, there been warning it would bave ia
| ken {. half mile TO stop. The train was
within 800 yards Of the red-tongued mes
sengers of death before they flashed their
| fatal signals into the engineers face But
he passed over in safety; the first engine
keeping the rails. AS it went over the
bridge went beneath it. and it could only
which saved the lives of the engineer and
his fireman.
THE WRECK.
But the next engine went down, and car
crashed into car, coaches piled one on top
Of another, and IN the twinkling of au eye
nearly 100 people found instant death, and
so more were SO hurt they could not live.
AS for the wounded, they were everywhere.
Only the sleeping coaches escaped, and as
the startled half dressed passengers came
tumbling out Of them, they found such d
scene Of death as is rarely witnessed, and
such work to do that il seemed as if human
hands were utterly incapable. 1t lacked
but five minutes of midnight. Down in the
ditch lay the second engineer, Engineer
EIcClintock dead, and Fireman APPRECIATE
badly Injured. On top were piled the three
baggage cars, one on top CT another, like
cbild's card house after he had swept it
with his hand. Then came the six day
coaches. They were teiescoped, and three
of them were pressed iuto just space enough,
for one. The second car had mounted off
its trucks, crashed through the car ahead
| OF it. crushing the woodwork aside ike tiil-
der, and lay there resting on the tops Of
tbs seais, while every passenger in the
front car was lying dead Or dying rnder
meath. Out OF that car but four people
came alive. Oh top Of the second car lay
the third, and its bottom was smeared with
| the blood Of its victims. The other three
cars were not SO badly crushed, but they
were broken and twisted in every conceiv-
able way, and every crushed timber and
! beam represented q crushed human frame
and broken bone. Instantly the sir was
| filed with the cries Of the wounded and the
| shrieks of those about TO die. The groans
| of men and the screams of women united,
made an appalling sound, and above all,
could be heard the agonizing cries of little
children as in some instances they lay
pinned alongside their dead parents.
FIGHTING THE TIRE.
Aud the,o was another terrible danger
vet to be net. The bridge was still burn
| ing, and the wrecked cars were lying on
tho fercely burning embers. Everywhere
| iu the wreck were wounded and unhurt
men, women and children, whose lives could
be saved il they conld be gotten out, but
whose death vas certain il the twisted
wood of the broken cars caught fire. Aud
TO fight the fire there was not a drop OF
vgatter and only some fifty able bodied men,
WIG still had presence of mind and nerve
enough TO do their duty. The only light
was the light Of the burning bridge, and
with so much of its aid, the fifty men vent
to work to fight the flames. For four hours
they fought like fiends, and for four hours
the victory hung in the balance. Earth was
the only weapon With which the fire could
b. fought, and SO the attempt was made to
smother it ont. There was 10 piok or
shovel to dig it up, no baskets or basrows
TO carry it, and so desperate were they that
they dug their fingers dosTn into the earth,
which :. long drought had baked almost as
hand as stone. and heaped the precious
handfuls thus hardly won upon the en-
croaching flames, and with this sartl.woik,
built handful by handful, kept back the foe.
While this was going On, other brave men
crept underneath the wrecked eafs, beneath
the fire and the wooden bar which held as
prisoners so many precious lives, and with
pieces of board and sometimes their hands,
beat back the flames when they flashed up
alongside some unfortunate wretch who,
pinned down by heavy beam, locked On
helplessly, while it seemed as if bis death
by fire was certain; and while the fight was